ACC moves basketball title game to Saturday night

The Atlantic Coast Conference is moving the championship game of its men’s basketball tournament to prime time and the title will be determined on a Saturday for the first time since 1982.

The conference announced the shift of its tournament schedule Tuesday during its spring meetings at Amelia Island, Fla.

The new tournament schedule was agreed upon by the ACC and ESPN, according to information from the conference.

The 2015 tournament final will be played at 8:30 p.m. at the Greensboro Coliseum.

This shifts the semifinals to an evening session on Friday night. The first of those will be scheduled for 7 p.m., meaning the semifinals should wrap up between 11:30 p.m. and midnight.

All 14 tournament games will continue to be televised nationally by ESPN and the ACC Network.

The first 28 ACC Tournaments were contested with Saturday championship games. The 1982 title game was contested on a Saturday afternoon after the first 27 were Saturday night games.

“This is kind of a ‘Back to the Future’ moment for our conference,” ACC commissioner John Swofford said. “The Sunday championship game worked tremendously well for more than three decades, but I believe our schools, teams and our fans will be excited about crowning a champion on Saturday night.”

This means the tournament, which ballooned to five days beginning this past March, will begin on a Tuesday with first-round games.

So, the regular season will conclude for teams no later than the previous Saturday, eliminating that Sunday prior to the tournament as a possible playing date, the conference announced.